Date
by TheOneThatStayed
Summary: Claudia and Parrish's first date.


This is my one of my favorite crack pairings of all time.

"Why am I so nervous? It's not like this is going anywhere. He asked me out to prove a point not because he actually cares. And he saw how freaked out I was about the other night, so maybe it's to save my virtue in my mind? I'm not even sure why I'm doing this, I burned my ear when I was curling my hair, there is a hole in my sweater and this dress is way too short." Dr. Isaac Parrish, my mostly frenemy, more recently friend with benefits had asked me out on a date, and I said yes. Not quite sure how that happened it just came out and now I am sitting on my bed wondering why I'm dressed up and why took an hour and a half to do my hair when this date was probably not a big deal to him. I hear a knock on my door at Barlowe's B&B, and glancing at myself one last time I pull the door open and there stands Parrish, holding a bundle of blue flowers, wearing a button down with a green sweater and black slacks. My mouth kind of just sits there ajar.

"Um Princess are you okay there?" He looks down at me before walking in and setting the flowers down on my bed.

"Come in then" He smirks up at me.

"Do you have something to put these in?" I nodded and I went to grab the mug I was drinking out of earlier and rinsed it out.

"So what kind of flowers are those, they're pretty." I return and he raises his eyes at the mug. I stare him down and he smiles, and the room goes silent before I feel a beard scratch against my hair line.

"Larkspur," He spoke in my ear. I walk forward really quickly and set the flowers on the desk in the room.

"So dinner right?" He chuckles before holding out his hand in a grand gesture at the door. Parrish follows me down the stairs before leading me to his car.

"Woah, sick car what is it. I mean obviously a hybrid but what other than that?" He raises his eyebrows at me.

"You know cars? Well you're just full of surprises aren't you? It's a Tesla Model S." At that I burst out laughing much to Parrish's confusion.

"I can't get away from him it seems." Parrish's brow was still furrowed with confusion but he opened the car door for me. I slid in as he went to his side. "I thought we were going to Café Diem?"

"I thought we'd go somewhere nicer. If that's alright?" I nod. "Why was the Tesla thing so funny?" I look away from the window to see him staring at me.

"Oh well Tesla was one of the original designers of the warehouse, and I tend to have to fix a lot of the stuff he designed. Not to mention the guns and grenades I've been working on in your lab were based off of Tesla's design."

"Oh." I looked down at my lap. Oh god why did I say that, he must think I don't have any original ideas, WHY DO I CARE? "So where are we going for dinner?"

"I know this Italian place called Renata's." He just stares at the road ahead of him. God I hate dates.

"Soo" I say playing with my skull rings, "Have you been able to figure out the problem with the unidirectional plasma field?" He sighs

"Let's not talk about work right now." OK, I start wracking my brain for something to say.

"Have you heard from Holly or Doug recently?" Parrish actually turns to look at me.

"You're bringing up our exes? Wow you kind of suck at making conversation don't you?" My mouth just kind of hangs open for a few seconds, why am I here?

"And your any better, you just insulted me, not what you should probably do on a date. And by the way Doug and I never dated." Parrish raises his eyebrows.

"Really because that was some hell of a kiss for just being friends" How did he know about that?

"Why were you staring perv?" Lights started appearing more often so I assumed we were getting closer to the town.

"I wasn't, someone had messed around with the bees in my lab so I was scrolling through the security tapes and happened upon that disturbing sight." And I'm the one who doesn't know how to talk on a date.

"First you call me socially impaired and now I'm disturbing, man you must be a regular Casanova." Parrish pulled into a dimly lit parking lot next to a building that was trying to replicate the Italian villa look, but it was ruined by the dense forests of Oregon in the background. He got out and walked around to my side of the car and pulled my door open. I got out and we started walking to the restaurant.

"You weren't the disturbing image I was talking about. And after kissing you I could see why Fargo got that idiotic smile." I stared at him, what was he? I just don't get how someone goes from insulting to complimenting in 2 sentences.

The hostess at the podium asked if we had a reservation, and he actually had one which means he thought about this right. Again I don't care about that; I care about why he is doing this. We were brought to a table in a secluded corner, with a stout candle in the middle and a bottle of wine parked in ice. Ok so he thought about this a lot.

"I don't get it" I say after the hostess left us. He moves his eyes from the menu to me.

"You don't get what; differential calculus, the meaning of life?" I glared at him, god he loses any points he gains by doing nice things when he opens his mouth.

"If you didn't interrupt me I could have finished my sentence." He smirks and the nods at me to continue. "Why did you do all this? the flowers, the wine, and candle." Parrish looked somewhat confused.

"Because this is a date?" I sigh

"I know that but Zayne said you just took Holly to Café Diem. Why not take me there?"

"I wasn't trying to get a good restart with Holly. She was blissfully idiotic, not in intelligence, I mean she has a PhD in Aerospace Engineering, but she didn't have that snarky jadedness that you have. You will call me on my bullshit, so now I want to show you I can try to not be an ass. And don't listen to Zayne ever, I mean even Lupo would give you that advice." A smile pulled at my lips.

"Ok then Isaac, let's start over." I think this is the first time I've seen him smile, without some form of gloating involved.


End file.
